{Reference Type}: Journal Article
{Title}: Highly Selective Lithium Transport through Crown Ether Pillared Angstrom Channels.
{Author}: Ye T;Gao H;Li Q;Liu N;Liu X;Jiang L;Gao J;
{Journal}: Angew Chem Int Ed Engl
{Volume}: 63
{Issue}: 7
{Year}: 2024 Feb 12
{Factor}: 16.823
{DOI}: 10.1002/anie.202316161
{Abstract}: Biological ion channels use the synergistic effects of various strategies to realize highly selective ion sieving. For example, potassium channels use functional groups and angstrom-sized pores to discriminate rival ions and enrich target ions. Inspired by this, we constructed a layered crystal pillared by crown ether that incorporates these strategies to realize high Li+ selectivity. The pillared channels and crown ether have an angstrom-scale size. The crown ether specifically allows the low-barrier transport of Li+ . The channels attract and enrich Li+ ions by up to orders of magnitude. As a result, our material sieves Li+ out of various common ions such as Na+ , K+ , Ca2+ , Mg2+ and Al3+ . Moreover, by spontaneously enriching Li+ ions, it realizes an effective Li+ /Na+ selectivity of 1422 in artificial seawater where the Li+ concentration is merely 25 μM. We expect this work to spark technologies for the extraction of lithium and other dilute metal ions.